Mobile wireless systems today provided services going far beyond supporting voice communications. Modern mobile wireless services support a variety of voice and data services. With regard to data services, mobile wireless services support data sessions between data servers and smart mobile wireless devices running a variety of applications including: browsers, email, and text messaging. Several services have been developed to exploit the widespread adoption of data communications capabilities (e.g., text messaging as well as browsers) now incorporated into mobile wireless devices. A particular public service is the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS)—also known as the Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN).
CMAS is an outgrowth of a broad initiative, the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). IPAWS was established under an executive order to ensure that the American public promptly receives accurate alerts and warnings, regardless of communications technologies used to transmit the messages. The IPAWS infrastructure will include a mobile wireless alerting capability. Including mobile wireless alerts under the IPAWS system reflects the important role of mobile wireless technologies in disseminating alerts and warnings involving the public well-being. Providing critical alert information via mobile wireless devices enables the public to avoid danger or respond more quickly during crisis—potentially saving lives and preventing property damage. Through IPAWS, numerous public and private industry partners are working together to transform the current national alert and warning system to enable rapid dissemination of authenticated alert information over as many communications pathways as possible.
CMAS is a component of the IPAWS initiative having the goal of establishing an effective alerting network designed for disseminating emergency alerts, via wireless service providers, to mobile wireless devices such as cell phones. The Federal Communications Commission developed CMAS for incorporation into the wireless server provider networks. CMAS enables federal agencies to accept and aggregate alerts from the President of the United States, the National Weather Service (NWS) and emergency operations centers, and send the alerts to mobile wireless service providers. The mobile wireless service providers then broadcast the CMAS alerts to individual mobile wireless devices of subscribers via text (e.g., text messages). The types of alerts that are transmitted via CMAS include the following: alerts issued by the President, alerts relating to threats of physical harm (e.g., severe weather) and AMBER Alerts. CMAS relies upon the collaborative efforts of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (DHS S&T), the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA).
CMAS is clearly one of the major components of the IPAWS. The CMAS component provides an interface to participating cellular mobile service providers for delivery of critical alert information to cellular phones in a danger zone. Specifically, the IPAWS CMAS capability will provide Federal, state, territorial, tribal and local government officials the ability to send 90 character, geographically targeted text alerts to the public, warning of imminent threats to life and property. An initial set of requirements of CMAS were developed by an advisory committee established by the FCC in accordance with the Warning, Alert and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006.
A differentiator of the CMAS capability versus existing subscription-based text messaging alert services currently available in some localities is that the CMAS enables alert messages to be sent to mobile wireless devices within range of broadcasting cellular communications towers. The CMAS also utilizes communications channels and protocols in cellular systems that decrease the impact of network congestion on the ability of transmitters to transmit alert messages during times of emergency.
The IPAWS initiative led to establishing a specification for the interface between a federal alert aggregator/gateway and commercial service provider gateways. In November 2009, the Alliance for Telecommunication Industry Solutions/Telecommunications Industry Association (ATIS/TIA) Joint CMAS Working Group approved the “Joint ATIS/TIA CMAS Federal Alert Gateway to Commercial Mobile Service Providers (CMSP) Gateway Specification” (Specification). The Specification was adopted as the Government Interface Design Specification for the FEMA IPAWS federal alert aggregator/gateway on Dec. 7, 2009.
Thus, in summary the IPAWS initiative gave rise to CMAS. CMAS, in turn, is being established to ensure that emergency alerts and messages are quickly and efficiently disseminated to mobile wireless devices including at least text messaging capability. To that end, CMAS accepts messages from authorized federal, state, territorial, tribal, and local officials and distributes them to participating Commercial Mobile Service Providers (CMSP) for distribution to the public.
Regarding CMAS implementation in the diverse mobile wireless technologies, each cellular network technology (e.g., GSM, CDMA2000, LTE, etc.) has a well defined set of specifications for cell broadcast system. Each cell broadcast system includes an underlying technology for distributing emergency alerts. For example, the CMAS uses the diverse cell broadcast technologies of GSM, CDMA2000, and LTE networks to distribute emergency alerts originated from Federal, State, and Local Government Agencies in accordance with a well-defined emergency alert message interface.
Thus, well defined interface exists between the message sources and gateways established by the mobile wireless service providers for broadcasting emergency messages to end users. The present message dissemination architecture is set up for English-speaking end users.